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Old 09-24-2006, 05:38 PM   #52
9th Engineer
Bioengineer and aspiring lawer
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 872
Well, she put me off fairly early on with phrases like the one I quoted. While it may not seem like that big off a deal it hinged on a gut reaction I picked up from my parents. Both my parents work(ed) in emergency medicine, so they had to learn to 'read through' patients to get as much information as they could. The ER does bad things to people, the doctors see people at their worst when they are under huge stresses, and as a result patients tend to lie, tell half-truths, and be extremely vauge. I've grown up hearing all the stories of this and now when I hear one I'm very skeptical of everything else you say. "My body decided it was fed up", is one of these, it gives no infomation but the patient will of course expect the doctor to know what in hell they're talking about. I'm not a doctor (I pray I'll never have to do clinical practice) so I'm not claiming this based on first person experience, but I grew up around it. I did say I have sympathy for the woman after re-reading it once or twice, but I stand by my statement that she forces the reader to fill in a lot of gaps. Depo (short for Depo-Provera, manufactured by Pfizer), for example, is certainly NOT something I would expect someone with a history of problems stemming from hormonal birthcontrol to switch to. Her acute attack makes sense because Depo is a higher hormonal 'hit', only with progesterone instead of estrogen.
Plus there are serious problems with it, I'm copying this list off Wikipedia for convenience:

severe headaches, constant bleeding (metrorrhagia), weight gain, panic attacks, muscle pain, heart palpitations, pain during sex, acne, irregular menstrual bleeding, abdominal cramps, dizziness, weakness or fatigue, leg cramps, nausea, vaginal discharge or irritation, breast swelling and tenderness, bloating, swelling of the hands or feet, backache, depression,insomnia, pelvic pain, no hair growth or excessive hair loss, rash, hot flashes,joint pain, convulsions, jaundice, urinary tract infections, allergic reactions, fainting, paralysis, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolus

So basically it was the combination of a long-time trigger and the presence of serious holes in her logic and story. Plus, look at the title of her blog "Den of the Biting Beaver : Gnawing away at sexism and misogyny, one patriarchal asshole at a time!", not great for the credibility.

EDIT: spacing
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